List Kutchi as separate from Sindhi in Census ’11, says Kutch

The first phase of Census 2011 has now started and Kutchis are apprehensive that, as in the 2001 census, their mother tongue, Kutchi, would again get a raw deal. In 2001, Kutchi was registered as a sub-language of Sindhi and not as an independent language spoken by a vast majority of the people of Kutch.

“We were deeply disappointed in 2001,” Kirti Khatri told DNA. “It was conducted shortly after the devastating earthquake. In fact, the census was postponed for Kutch because of the calamity and was undertaken later in a very hurried manner.” Khatri is the first president of Kutchi Sahitya Academy.

He said that, in 2001, despite their protest, Kutchi was shown as a sub-language of Sindhi. “We don’t want this to happen again this time,” Khatri said. “Kutchi is an independent language with roots in Sanskrit, and has its own, rich literature.”

Recognising Kutchi as an independent language, the state government had encouraged the formation of a Kutchi Sahitya Academy. Even the Central Sahitya Academy treats Kutchi as an independent language, Kirti said. Khatri is also the editor of the district’s biggest and oldest newspaper, ‘Kutch Mitra’. His 5-year term as president of Kutchi Sahitya Academy ended last week.

Khatri said he and members of other academies had tried to meet Manish Bhardwaj, the director of census operations, India, in Gandhinagar last week. They wanted to discuss the issue so that the ‘blunder’ of 2001 is not repeated, he said.

“But Bhardwaj was out of town,” Khatri said. “We talked to other officials involved in census operations in Gujarat. They accepted that a mistake had been made and advised us to approach the census commissioner of India for correction. We have given a formal representation to the state census office and are going to
take up the issue with the census commissioner of India too.”

Talking about the 2001 census, Kirti said, “I don’t know how such a mistake could have occurred. Form C-16 gives information about the population of a region on the basis of the language spoken in the area.”

“Under the head ‘Language’ in the form, the census 2001 showed the population of Kutch as 5,73,522, of which 5,49,646 people spoke Kutchi while the number of people speaking Sindhi was 23,630. How can the language of a minority be the main language of the region?” he asked.